Biltmore Village is celebrating the magic of the holidays with theatrical charm this weekend as the Montford Park Players join strolling jugglers, musicians, storytellers and more on the streets, shops and main stage of the historic community.

At the annual Dickens in the Village event, you might run into characters like Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge or your favorite traditional musicians, such as Beth and Jim Magill, Don Pedi or Whitewater Bluegrass Company at a Biltmore Village restaurant, shop, gallery or hotel.

“What we do is scenes from Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’” said Hazel Robinson, founder and chair emeritus of the Montford Park Players. “We go in and out of the shops, in front of the shops, we tailor the performance to the space that is there.” One scene that plays out is Scrooge and the solicitor who asks him for contributions for the poor.

“We’ve been with the Dickens Village program every year since they had the idea of doing it,” Robinson said.

This is the 23rd year for the event, and more than 300 performers in a wide range of styles roam the village, many taking a turn on an outdoor main stage before heading off to visit merchants.

“This is the ideal spot for a Dickens festival,” said Stan Collins, head of the Biltmore Village Merchants Association and owner of Once Upon a Time toy and book store. “All the buildings in the village have an English cottage look, similar to the kind of look associated with ‘A Christmas Carol.’”

Some store owners and employees dress up like Dickens characters. Music and entertainment are continuous and sometimes spontaneous.

“It’s fun when it’s unexpected and a group starts singing in a store,” Collins said. “We bring in street performers, you walk down the street, and there’s a juggler, the mime is terrific.”

English village in N.C.

The look of Biltmore Village is a long-term historic plan.

“It was created by the Vanderbilts when they had finished the construction of the Biltmore Estate,” said Collins. An architect from England was engaged to design the village; a train already ran to the village station, bringing goods for the estate.

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“When people arrived and got off the train, Mr. Vanderbilt wanted an interesting community, a high-quality place for them to get off,” Collins said.

Fashioned like an English village, there are brick sidewalks, and several years ago, the merchants association put in reproductions of the original streetlights. Carriage rides are available for a fee.

“It has a community feel, sort of the way shopping used to be,” Collins said. “You can walk to everything, see people. It’s fun for adults and for kids, too. They love the performing acts.”

“This is entrepreneurship at its best,” added Collins, who opened his store full of unique books and toys 18 years ago. “This village was built, created and operated by local people, local entrepreneurs. One starts a business, the next starts the business, that is impressive.”

The area has seen continued expansion and growth in the last five or six years.

“The village has uniqueness about it, and there is uniqueness about the items sold in all the stores in the village,” Collins said. “I have a series of wooden trucks and trains made by someone here in town, you can’t find that anywhere else; they are not mass-produced. New Morning Gallery has one-of-a-kind art and furnishings from this area — it’s very special that way.”

An ongoing air of good feeling is part of the weekend, actors and musicians share holiday greetings as they pass along the street, with spontaneous outbursts of Christmas carols.

“Whether it’s raining, cold, snowing or warm and sunny, oddly enough, everyone enjoys it despite the weather,” said Robins. “For a lot of people who have participated or attended, Christmas doesn’t happen until they see us do ‘A Christmas Carol.’”